The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Citrus ichangensis x C. maxima herein referred to as ‘Tift2-16’.
The new Citrus ichangensis x C. maxima is a product of a planned research, evaluation, and testing program conducted by the Inventors in Tifton, Ga. The objective of the Citrus ichangensis x C. maxima research program is to create a new plant cultivar with reduced seed production. This cultivar is commercially important for its low seed production. These and other qualities are enumerated herein.
Pedigree and history: ‘Ichang’ lemon (not patented) is an old Chinese hybrid cultivar that has fruit that can be used as a lemon. It has large juicy fruit and has been grown by backyard citrus growers for more than 75 years across the southern half the Coastal Plain in the United States. It will reliably grow without protection up to the northern border of US Hardiness Zone 8b. It has been reported that ‘Ichang’ will be hardy to 12° C. It will grow further north with protection. ‘Ichang’ produces a juicy fruit with many large seeds (the main complaint about this cultivar). Years ago before all of the quarantine regulations, gardeners from Louisiana to North Carolina brought ‘Ichang’ fruit yearly to the Southeastern Citrus Expo (a part of the Southeastern Palm Society). Our objective on this project was to reduce the number of seed in each fruit in hopes that this cultivar would be more widely used in backyard gardening.
On Jan. 14, 2003, we irradiated seeds of ‘Ichang’ lemon harvested from a tree (established from seed) that had been growing in one of the inventor's yards since 1976. These seeds were removed from the fruit and immediately irradiated with 25 Kr of gamma radiation. The seeds were planted in large pots in a greenhouse and individual seedlings (when about 8 cm tall) were transplanted to 10 cm pots. In June 2003, 125 seedlings produced from the irradiated seeds were transplanted to a test field on 3.05 m center to center spacing. These trees began producing fruit in 2009. In 2009, we began cutting fruit systematically from around each tree, looking for seedless chimeras. We identified one of these trees, which we have called ‘Tift2-16’, in December 2009 as having the best fruit and lowest seed set and began evaluating its fruit characteristics. We began grafting and budding trees from this original ‘Tift2-16’ tree in January 2010 in Tifton, Ga. onto Poncirus trifoliata (non-patented) rootstock. We planted these asexually propagated trees in the field in April 2010. Scion wood was taken from various branches of the original tree of this new variety and used to propagate trees of the new variety. Observations of fruit from these trees has confirmed that these trees reproduce true for the reduced seed characteristic.
Asexual reproduction of the new Citrus ichangensis x C. maxima ‘Tift2-16’ by vegetative propagation (budding and grafting) in La Grange, Ga.; Pavo, Ga., Tifton, Ga., and Valdosta, Ga. in 2013, 2014, and 2015, has shown that the unique features of this new Citrus cultivar are stable and reproduce true to type in successive generations.